Star Trek: Lower Decks
"Hear All, Trust Nothing"
Air date: 9/29/2022
Written by Grace Parra Janney
Directed by Fill Marc Sagadraca
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
The Cerritos is assigned to oversee post-Dominon-war trade negotiations with the Karemma, the mercantile Dominion member world that was perhaps most memorably represented in DS9's "Starship Down" with a guest appearance by James Cromwell. The negotiations take place on Deep Space Nine, providing Lower Decks an opportunity to geek out using the backdrop of the Trek franchise's middlest of middle children.
And, sure, as an homage to DS9, "Hear All, Trust Nothing" puts forth its fan-service bonafides. We've got ops. The promenade. Quark's bar (the original, not the franchise extensions). Morn. Dabo tables. Shaxs and Kira swapping war stories from the Bajoran Resistance days, with each trying to one-up the other over who owes whom. The cold open gently mocks the profundity of DS9's title sequence: "Circle around and pretend we're in awe of the pylons." Armin Shimerman (Quark) and Nana Visitor (Kira) provide their voices to lend legitimacy to the whole enterprise. The animated sets of the station are flawlessly replicated. If DS9 is your Trek series, then this episode is for you.
Unfortunately, as an episode of Lower Decks, this is purely standard fare and nothing more. The plot is a shrug-worthy shaggy dog story, with Quark and his lack of ethics biting him in the ass in the way too many DS9 Quark B-stories used to. Turns out his special replicator (the "Quark 2000") — the secret to his trademarked beverages — is based on stolen Karemma technology, and now the Karemma want payback (or 76 percent of Quark's profits). Tensions boil over and we end up with a Quark kidnapping.
Meanwhile, Boimler runs up impressive winnings at the dabo table, much to Quark's staff's ire. And Tendi and Rutherford meet an annoyingly overbearing Orion, Ensign Mesk (Adam Pally under the influence of way too much coffee), who is obsessed with connecting with Tendi over their supposedly shared cultural identity of criminal piracy. Tendi is annoyed and embarrassed by this. Naturally, it turns out Mesk is an overcompensating phony who has never actually known anything about the Orion homeworld or piracy, while Tendi pulls out her suppressed pirate-family ways when the action calls for it. It's a pretty basic "twist."
Mariner is in a separate plot of her own back aboard the Cerritos, where, in a significant relationship moment, she meets all of Jennifer's other friends, who are not Mariner's cup of tea, to say the least. This plot also pivots on a sudden "twist," where it turns out Jennifer actually wants Mariner to use her no-BS attitude to take her insufferable friends down a peg. This turnabout actually saps any potential character growth for Mariner in favor of a predictable comic payoff and wacky hijinks. Rather than Mariner having to live with the fact she can't stand her girlfriend's friends, we get to watch her phaser-stun everyone with vengeful glee, which feels like (1) a cop-out and (2) quite a bit much.
In the end, "Hear All, Trust Nothing" is middling Lower Decks featuring a veneer of DS9 homage. By not being more special and consequential, it feels like a missed opportunity.
Previous episode: Reflections
Next episode: A Mathematically Perfect Redemption
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39 comments on this post
Thu, Sep 29, 2022, 4:25am (UTC -6)
Thu, Sep 29, 2022, 5:15am (UTC -6)
Thu, Sep 29, 2022, 5:58am (UTC -6)
Thu, Sep 29, 2022, 6:38am (UTC -6)
It was a hell of a fanservice, though. They got Armin Shimerman and Nana Visitor back. The station looked great from airlock to ops, Boimler played “Favour the Bold”, Quark holds old grudges against the Karemma (and does shady business, and it punished by severe profit cuts in the end), and even the wormhole comes into the game. On the other side, the character piece for Tendi fell flat for me, because we had already dived twice into that matter. So we knew where this was going to, and I just waited for the Mistress of the Winter Constellations to erupt, which she did spectacularly. The action scenes on the Karemma ship were fine, but we have already seen Tendi doing similar stuff in other episodes, so there was little surprise or tension.
I always wanted more Jen in this season and got it finally. The literature club scene was grinding and took forever, but I am sure Mariner felt the same, so that’s OK. The catharsis (“tear them a new one”) came at the right moment. I laughed out loud when the two star-crossed lovers shot themselves.
2½ stars, maybe 3 if we consider that DS9 gets far too little fanservicy content compared to TNG, VOY and TOS, and every effort is laudable. As a working place sitcom serving memberberry juice as the “the fan’s drink”, this worked nicely. Yet, since the show carries the name “Star Trek”, I should like to get more, at least occasionally. What about heavy themes, ethical dilemmata or bold ideas? Season 3 hasn’t done any of those, but I still hope that it will keep the tradition to serve an unforgettable classic as penultimte course.
Thu, Sep 29, 2022, 7:40am (UTC -6)
I think it would have been much better if they had written this episode as if it was a DS9 episode which the Lower Deckers happened to have guest roles in. It would have only taken a tiny bit of reframing.
Thu, Sep 29, 2022, 9:44am (UTC -6)
So, in that sense, the episode works functionally well with Tendi's "Pirate Mode" being the epic climax (I wonder if Tendi ever got any credit for saving Captain Freeman’s mission?) The DS9 homages were good, but perhaps there were too many. It's not like Lower Decks doesn't already reference DS9 every other episode.
But hey, it's all in good fun and as a DS9 fan it's a pleasure to see how Kira and Quark are doing, as well as the station itself!
So, good but nothing mind-shattering. I'm going with 2.5 stars.
Thu, Sep 29, 2022, 11:21am (UTC -6)
A fun, inoffensive story with some great nods to lore and continuity... And it was wonderful to hear Nana Visitor voice Kira again. However, Armin Shimerman only occasionally managed to sound like the Quark of old. It's been almost 30 years since the start of Deep Space Nine, maybe age is catching up with him.
Thu, Sep 29, 2022, 1:12pm (UTC -6)
Kira and Quark. 🙌
4 stars Bravo!
Thu, Sep 29, 2022, 1:34pm (UTC -6)
I just felt like I viewed a brand new episode of DS9!
Yeah — I would have preferred for the entire episode to have been focused on the Station; but what we got felt *great* !
… The Quark subplot alone is worth the price of admission!
Live Long and Prosper! 🖖
Thu, Sep 29, 2022, 3:01pm (UTC -6)
Thu, Sep 29, 2022, 3:11pm (UTC -6)
Seems like y’all won’t ever be happy. This show is doing what it does extremely well. If you want galaxy in peril stakes watch disco. …Disco is awful for exactly the reasons that ot heads in the direction you seem to hope LD goes
Thu, Sep 29, 2022, 3:44pm (UTC -6)
I was rolling on the floor.
Thu, Sep 29, 2022, 4:12pm (UTC -6)
Thu, Sep 29, 2022, 5:47pm (UTC -6)
Thu, Sep 29, 2022, 6:06pm (UTC -6)
Thu, Sep 29, 2022, 7:37pm (UTC -6)
That's not what I said. I said "special" and "consequential." Special in that, couldn't we have learned something about the current DS9 world beyond Quark Swindles Somebody Again Like Every Other Time? And consequential in that it matters to the DS9 universe besides Quark Loses His Profits? By no means did it need to be serious or heavy, and I didn't say so.
Thu, Sep 29, 2022, 9:16pm (UTC -6)
Thu, Sep 29, 2022, 10:23pm (UTC -6)
Fri, Sep 30, 2022, 9:17am (UTC -6)
I kinda wish they'd brought back Avery Brooks' for a cameo, maybe appearing before Tendi and Rutherford inside the Celestial Temple/Wormhole.
I don't mind low-stakes hangout episodes, but we've already been through Tendi struggling with her Orion heritage.
We still haven't gone that deep into Mariner's past, and considering she once served on DS9, I wanted more than a few exchanged pleasantries with Kira .
I'm torn, because I don't need the universe or the future to be on the line in every episode like DIS or PIC, but the fact LD only has ten episodes to work with means you need a couple episodes with some meat to them.
I like Mariner, but there's still too much we don't know about her, and not in a charming Garak way.
Hopefully before the end of the season more of her past is revealed, and while promotion and/or transfer would render the show's title moot, the fact of the matter is all four leads have achieved enough in these three seasons to at least make lieutenant junior grade.
They don't deserve Harry Kim Limbo!
Sat, Oct 1, 2022, 8:40am (UTC -6)
Sat, Oct 1, 2022, 10:24am (UTC -6)
Lower Decks is the kind of TV I originally got into TNG/DS9 (and to a lesser extent, Voyager) to *get away from.* Goony, pandering, insulting to my intelligence and a waste of my time in the end.
If this is Star Trek just throwing up its hands and saying “Ok, I give up, there’s no way to please you, Norris”, then at a certain point, I really just feel that it’s an exercise in futility to continue with it. SNW is in the realm of “Yeah ok sure” but it’s still carrying this baggage of Modern “Stale Trek” on it, and I just get the feeling that things are going to swerve off course before too long in that avenue as well.
… Star Trek has fired the Sci Fi writers, for being boring nerds.
As the Klingons say, “You have betrayed your oaths, and you treat honor as if it has no meaning. I should kill you where you stand!!”
Sat, Oct 1, 2022, 2:25pm (UTC -6)
Garak talking to Kira:
"Yes, Major, I may have launched a missile that caused a brownhole to make sure The Cerritos arrived here. I perhaps may have reminded Quark that the Karemma didnt help in the war and they took his potential profits in the Gamma quadrant. Maybe I made sure Tendi was 'trapped' in the Karemma ship. She was the only one that could take it and stop the Karemma. I *might* have short sold Quark's Stock in Ferenginar for a tidy sum. You know major, the Tailoring business is not the same as before"
Sat, Oct 1, 2022, 4:53pm (UTC -6)
Sat, Oct 1, 2022, 9:53pm (UTC -6)
Sat, Oct 1, 2022, 9:57pm (UTC -6)
Dear God Please No!! Don't let him sully and besmirch the DS9 legacy and characters the way he has done with TNG and Cpt. Picard.
Sat, Oct 1, 2022, 9:58pm (UTC -6)
Sat, Oct 1, 2022, 10:59pm (UTC -6)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59_Wzssx4iA
Mon, Oct 3, 2022, 9:22am (UTC -6)
""As I understand it, Alex Kurtzman would like to return to Deep Space Nine as a series somehow."
Dear God Please No!! Don't let him sully and besmirch the DS9 legacy and characters the way he has done with TNG and Cpt. Picard."
Agree wholeheartedly!!
Jammer,
"Unfortunately, as an episode of Lower Decks, this is purely standard fare and nothing more."
While I'll agree with you on the plot, I'm not sure we could have gotten "DS9 deep" here. We did learn something about DS9... OPS is manned totally by Bajorans so I think it's safe to assume that Bajor has taken over DS9.
This is a pretty standard DS9 Ferengi story... or more accurately a Quark story... All in good fun, which is what STLD is. Tendi steps up when she needs to, bold Boimler...., Rutherford seems to know a bunch about DS9... and we of course get a lesbian kiss in fine keeping with DS9 tradition.
I got goosebumps when DS9 appeared on screen with the DS9 theme playing... man, they stepped up the animation here I thought. The detail on the station and Cerritos was incredible.
Where were Obrien and Bashir? It seems we could/should have had them here too. A missed opportunity I think.
3.5 stars from me. Glad that LD took a trip to DS9!
Mon, Oct 3, 2022, 1:04pm (UTC -6)
1. Mariner's plot could literally have happened anywhere, in any episode this season. Apparently Tawny Newsome had to beg the showrunner for the final scene where she goes onto DS9 - the original plan was for her to be on the ship the entire episode. Which is absolutely insane, because the first two seasons established she was stationed there, and the plot should have involved her and her history with Quark/Kira strongly. I think what we got here was fine, but it just could have been anywhere else but here.
2. Tendi's arc only really involved DS9 because they happened to station the tryhard Orion dude there (who seemingly is the only Starfleet officer now working on DS9). Again, it really could have gone anywhere, because the way in which it related to Quark's shenanigans didn't really matter. It was about Tendi being too nice of a person to someone annoying until she finally snapped, and badass Tendi came out. This was a failure as an arc though, since we already knew from Season 2 she came from a family of Orion pirates. It showed us nothing new about her as a character, and one could argue it didn't really showcase any character growth for her.
The actual core shit that Quark was getting into with the Karemma was a classic DS9 lower-stakes plot. The issue was that this plot didn't involve the Lower Deckers at all. I realize the way this series typically works is there's the main adventure the actual bridge crew of the Cerritos is doing off to one side while the Lower Decks folks are involved in minor hijinks. But they had the perfect "in" here because of the history between Mariner and Quark. They could have had Quark call in a favor to Mariner and have them do some sort of weird scutwork (hopefully something involving self-sealing stem bolts) while negotiations with the Karemma were going on - which eventually ties into Quark being kidnapped.
Basically, I feel like they should have approached this episode like Wej Duj from last season - have it be basically a DS9 episode that the Lower Deckers happen to be the guest cast within. Instead we have a generic Lower Decks episode which takes place while a generic DS9 episode (which is probably more interesting) is going on (though neither one is all that funny, to be honest).
Mon, Oct 3, 2022, 5:28pm (UTC -6)
@ Zimmerman: I agree we really need some delving into Mariner's backstory; it should spread out over a few episodes; it doesn't have to be all at once. We could have gotten some gleaning here from her connections with Kira and Quark. Missed opportunity I hope they rectify soon. I love the light comedy and shenanigans but we need some substance too; give some gravitas to the characters so we can take them more seriously.
If you are all feeling nostalgic for DS9, you should check out the "All That We Left Behind" documentary on Amazon Prime. Among other things, they give a hypothetical treatment/summary for the pilot episode to a hypothetical season 8. Just don't let Kurtzman get his hands on it.
Mon, Oct 3, 2022, 7:08pm (UTC -6)
"@ Yanks: Remember, O'brien left DS9 to return to earth with Keiko and Molly; but we could have had Bashir still on the station."
Ah, you're right. Thanks.
Tue, Oct 4, 2022, 9:39pm (UTC -6)
Tue, Oct 4, 2022, 9:53pm (UTC -6)
It’s interesting to compare the show to the TNG ep, where the characters had fairly strong motivations, backstories, and arcs that unfolded over 45 minutes or so. Feel like I know that Bajoran lady way better than Tendi.
It’s okay for Lower Decks to be fun and zany and full of fan service, but there has to be some reason to tune in. I feel myself wanting to root for these characters (and for Starfleet), but there’s just not enough in the way of stakes. And by stakes, I don’t mean “save the universe”. Modest stakes, if handled properly, can feel as profound as big ones. More so, in fact, because the viewer isn’t benumbed to maximalist set pieces.
Maybe Rutherford has to deal with a malfunctioning replicator on a first date with Tendi. Maybe Boimler’s perfectionism lands him in trouble when he goes off script on an away mission. Oh I don’t know, maybe Mariner has to relearn how to give a crap about her career.
We’ve had fits and starts of the above, but we’re three seasons in and the show is still spinning its wheels.
Wed, Oct 5, 2022, 7:09am (UTC -6)
Oh yes, that Bajoran lady from that one episode of Star Trek was great.
Wed, Oct 5, 2022, 8:44am (UTC -6)
Now do you have anything whatsoever to add, or are you just going to make more lazy, assholish comments?
Fri, Oct 14, 2022, 1:49pm (UTC -6)
This seems to have bothered the creators so this is now a bunch of episodes where it's far lower stakes.
Which may not be a good idea.
But you know what? Screw it. Nana Visitor and Armin are back. I am a DS9 fanboy and loved this. It gets a 10/10 just for having her staring wistfully at the wormhole and thinking of either Odo, Sisko, or both.
Wed, Nov 2, 2022, 6:37am (UTC -6)
Fri, Dec 9, 2022, 7:38am (UTC -6)
Sat, Mar 11, 2023, 2:36am (UTC -6)
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